And a very happy Fourth of July to everyone, particularly my American friends.

Independence Day again, and no sign of invading spaceships so I’m assuming its safe to do another number factoid.

And what else could it be today other than 1776, the year America became an independent nation.

Here we go.

Enjoy

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And where else to start but with….

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American Revolutionary War

On January 1st, 1776 Gen George Washington hoisted the Continental Union Flag. The same day the town of Norfolk, Virginia, was destroyed by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.

On Jan 5th the Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state constitution.

On January 10th Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense “written by an Englishman” in Philadelphia arguing for independence from British rule in what were then the Thirteen Colonies.

On February 27th Scottish North Carolina Loyalists charge across Moore’s Creek bridge near Wilmington to attack what they mistakenly believed to be a small force of rebels. Several loyalist leaders are killed in the ensuing battle. The patriot victory virtually ended all British authority in the province.

On March 2nd and 3rd the American Continental Navy and Marines made a successful assault on Nassau, Bahamas, and in the Battle of the Rice Boats, American Patriots resisted the Royal Navy on the Savannah River effectively ending British control over the Province of Georgia.

On March 4th American Patriots capture Dorchester Heights thereby dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts. Threatened by the Patriot cannons on Dorchester Heights, the British evacuate Boston on March 17th.

On April 12th the Royal Colony of North Carolina produced the Halifax Resolves making it the first British colony officially to authorize its Continental Congress delegates to vote for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

On May 4th Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of Great Britain.

On June 7th Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Second Continental Congress (meeting in Philadelphia) that “these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”

On June 11th the Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence.

On June 12th the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason was adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates and three days later on June 15th the Delaware General Assembly voted to suspend government under the British Crown.

On July 2nd the final (despite minor revisions) U.S. Declaration of Independence was written. The Continental Congress passed the Lee Resolution.

And as we all know, on July 4th the United States Declared Independence: The Continental Congress ratified the declaration by the United States of its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

On July 8th the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the following day an angry mob in New York City toppled the equestrian statue of George III of Great Britain in Bowling Green.

On August 2nd most of the American colonies ratify the Declaration of Independence.

On August 15th the first Hessian troops land on Staten Island to join British forces.

On August 27th in the Battle of Long Island, Washington’s troops were routed in Brooklyn by British under William Howe.

On September 1st the Cherokee Nation was invaded by 6,000 patriot troops from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina begins. The troops destroyed thirty-six Cherokee towns.

On September 7th saw the world’s first submarine attack when the American submersible craft Turtle attempted to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.

On September 11th an abortive peace conference took place between British and Americans on Staten Island.

On September 15th British troops landed on Manhattan at Kips Bay.

On September 16th in the Battle of Harlem Heights, the Continental Army under Washington are victorious against the British on Manhattan.

On September 22nd the British hanged spy Nathan Hale in New York City for espionage.

The following month, on October 11th on Lake Champlain near Valcour Island, a British fleet led by Sir Guy Carleton defeated 15 American gunboats commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. Although nearly all of Arnold’s ships are destroyed, the two day-long battle gave Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.

On October 18th in the Battle of Pell’s Point, forces of the American Continental Army resisted a British and Hessian force in The Bronx, whilst on October 28 in the Battle of White Plains, British forces attacked and captured Chatterton Hill from the Americans.

On October 26th Benjamin Franklin departed from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.

The last day of that month, October 31st saw King George III make his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, in which in perhaps the understatement of the year, told the British Parliament that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.

On November 16th Hessian mercenaries under Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen captured Fort Washington from the American Continentals. The captain of the American navy ship Andrew Doria fired a salute to the Dutch flag on Fort Orange and Johannes de Graaff answers with eleven gun shots.

On December 7th the Marquis de Lafayette attempted to enter the American military as a major general.

And on December 21st the Royal Colony of North Carolina reorganizes into the State of North Carolina after adopting its own constitution. Richard Caswell becomes the first governor of the newly formed state.

On December 23rd Thomas Paine, living with Washington’s troops, began publishing The American Crisis, containing the stirring phrase, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

At Christmas 1776, Gen. George Washington ordered the first issue of The Crisis to be read to his troops on Christmas Eve, then at 6 p.m. all 2600 of them march to McKonkey’s Ferry, crossed the Delaware River and land on the Jersey bank at 3 a.m.

And finally December 26th saw the Battle of Trenton, in which Washington’s troops surprised and defeated the 1500 Hessian troops under the command of Col. Johann Rall outside Trenton, taking 948 prisoners while suffering only 5 wounded.

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In other things and other places in 1776

The year 1776 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.

In Roman Numerals 1776 is written as MDCCLXXVI.

On January 2nd Austria ended interrogation torture

On February 17th Edward Gibbon published the first volume of his famous work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

On March 9th Scottish economist Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in London.

On March 28th Juan Bautista de Anza found the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.

On April 15th the Duchess of Kingston was found guilty of bigamy.

On May 1st Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.

On June 17th Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio, landing on June 29th and constructing the Mission Dolores of the new Presidio of San Francisco.

On July 12th Captain James Cook sets off from Plymouth, England, in HMS Resolution on his third voyage, to the Pacific Ocean and Arctic, which would turn out to be fatal.

On July 21st Mozart’s Serenade No. 7 (the “Haffner”) is first performed in Salzburg, Austria.

On July 29th Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, and eight other Spaniards set out from Santa Fe on an eighteen-hundred mile trek through the American Southwest. They were the first Europeans to explore the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierras.

On September 6th a hurricane hit Guadeloupe, killing more than 6000 people.

On September 24th the first of the now very famous St Leger horse races were held at Doncaster, England.

On October 7th Crown Prince Paul of Russia married Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.

On October 9th Father Francisco Palou founded the Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.

On October 18th in a New York bar decorated with a bird tail, a customer orders “cock tail”.

On December 5th the first US fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa (William & Mary College), is formed.

The Standard Practice for Conditioning and Testing Textiles is Active Standard ASTM D1776